Internationalization knowledge: what, why, where and when?

Acquiring relevant knowledge plays a critical role in the internationalization process. Yet our understanding of the role of internationalization knowledge (IK) remains a largely unfilled gap in the international marketing literature. A framework is developed that discriminates three categories of internationalization knowledge that firms need as they internationalize for; gaining market entry, localizing of strategies and organizing international enterprise structures. Employing a longitudinal qualitative analysis of ten internationalizing firms, this study examines why firms needed these IK categories, where they sourced them from, and when in different stages of international growth they need them. Managerial implications are addressed